Kuntak Rax
Kuntak Rax (May 12, 2365) is a Joined Trill hailing from the planet Trill. He is the 12th host of the symbiont Rax. As of the early 25th century, he serves in the Joint Task Force Bellerophon as a Researcher aboard Hephaestus Station. Early Life (2365-2387) Kuntak Carell was born on Trill in 2365, studying from a very young age to become a host. Receiving honors in Theoretical Physics, Warp Field Dynamics, and Conceptual Engineering, he was chosen to be the recipient for Rax when the need arose. The operation took place on 2387: Kuntak Carell becoming Kuntak Rax. Poseidon Disaster Prior to the transplant, Rax had the host of Parda. Parda Rax served aboard the U.S.S. Poseidon as member of a research team aboard. He served on this ship for years, growing ever familiar with the crew, working with them through thick and thin. During a survey of a planet, the ship's systems shut down one-by-one, resulting in a warp core meltdown. Ship-wide power loss prevented from the core being ejected, forcing the crew to evacuate the ship. During the evacuation, Parda was wounded badly enough to require the symbiont to be transplanted to another host, prompting the transfer to Kuntak. Civilian Life (2387-2417) Rax, due to the nature of symbiotic transplants, left Starfleet soon after becoming Kuntak. His first acts in the new body were driven by the loss of the Poseidon. He went into seclusion, not even responding to summons from Trill's Symbiosis Commission. In this time, he picked up research from a previous life, under the impression that it related to what happened on his favorite ship. Using savings from his past years, he would purchase a runabout, with a research module attached. This runabout, U.S.S. Mak'ala, would be his home for some time. He would travel planet to planet, collecting samples and data. When Kuntak began to run out of ideas, leads coming to an unsatisfactory close, he eventually chose to settle down, missing life planet-side. He settled under a false name on the colony Theta VII, living there for nearly two decades, picking up his research on-and-off in that time. Operation: Neptune On 2417, Kuntak Rax was directly contacted by a Starfleet Representative, who had tracked him to this colony. He was being contacted due to being part of the research team aboard Poseidon, an incident Starfleet had on queue for investigation until then. Protective of his research, Kuntak denied Starfleet access to the small amount of information he had accumulated over the years, and so a compromise was made: Operation: Neptune. Kuntak, and a small crew of his choosing, would be accompanied by the investigator to the wreck of the Poseidon. When there, they would attempt to repair the ship enough to tow it off of the planet. Kuntak was opposed to this at first, but would be persuaded by the fact that the ship contained everything he had been trying to research for the past three decades, and the reunion with his crew-mates was appreciated as well. Soon after this was decided, they launched in the Mak'ala, collected their crew, comprising of Kuntak and the Representative, as well as Poseidon's former Chief Engineer, Tactical Officer, and Helmsman, all of which Parda had been friends with. They soon made way for Poseidon's crash-site. When they arrived, the wreck was located on the surface. They began their descent, but detected an unknown particle in the atmosphere around the wreckage. Kuntak recognized it as what took Poseidon down, but before he could get the runabout to turn back, the numbers of this particle sky rocketed, they suddenly lose power and fall to the surface. Kuntak and the crew survived the crash, the helmsman getting the worst of the crash. After a short attempt to get the Runabout running again, they decided they needed to continue with the plan, however compromised it may have been. They suited up in Environmental Suits and made their way to the Poseidon, the Galaxy-class vessel towering over the vegetation in the valley it dug itself into. Once aboard, they used portable generators to power a turbolift, first stop: Science Lab Two, where the team believes these particles were created. The team arrived at the doorstep of Science Lab Two, prying open the door to gain access. Once inside, they discovered the long-decomposed skeleton of the Chief Science Officer, beside a terminal. When they arrive, the damage is little-to-none, with the warp core being entirely intact. Kuntak knew that the particles absorbed any energy they were near, but not what they did with it, so the warp reactor would be a prime location to inspect for more information on this. However, as Kuntak was taking readings with his tricorder, the core reactivated: The Chief Engineer, accompanied by the rest of the team, were in the control booth; they restarted the warp core. As the matter-antimatter reaction began, the lights of the room came to life, the automatic doors closing the team in, and the systems of the ship restarted. With this extreme surge of energy, the particles that were covering every centimeter of the Poseidon's hull came to life as well, the sheer amount of them kickstarting a reaction: Each particulate creating a micro-puncture in Subspace, transferring the particles away, and through molecular magnetism, the ship with it. The ship vanished from the face of the planet, as well as a good amount of soil and vegetation, only to have moved lightyears away, this event taking Kuntak and the rest by surprise. Once Kuntak realized what had happened, he immediately made his way back to the Science Lab, the rest of the team following, with the Chief Engineer staying behind to monitor the warp core. In this "eye of the storm," they had a brief time to disable the particle field before another jump was made. Kuntak made it to the terminal connected to the station they were being produced, and cancelled the generation queue. With a majority of the particles being eliminated when the ship jumped, there was no longer sufficient amounts to launch the ship again, and so the crew were safe. They remained where they were for several days, cleaning as many remaining particles as possible, running diagnostics, and generally preparing the ship for standard warp. While this work was going on, Kuntak made a copy of the data of the particles (however corrupt it was) and wiped them from the database, justifying it to himself that they were too dangerous to be left in anyone but his hands. After the systems check, the went to warp for as long as they safely could, then sent out a distress signal to be recovered. Soon after this whole incident, Kuntak rejoined Starfleet, his goal of solving this mystery complete, as far as he knew at least. Joint Task Force Bellerophon (2419) After a Task Group from the Joint Task Force Bellerophon encountered an unknown object covered in the same particles, which were since dubbed the Chimera Virus, Kuntak Rax was transferred from Starfleet into their Research and Development Installation, seeking to assist in development and utilization of this substance.